Origami Horse
by Kadunta
Summary: <html><head></head>Genma had left with Nodoka more than his own scrolls. Now the British Library is interested in them. Ranma, of course, is thrown in the mix. Opening chapter mostly written in 2006, possibly subject to later revisions. As dead as a doornail?</html>


_Disclaimer. None of the characters in this story (except the few author-created characters) or series (Ranma 1/2, Read or Die and R.O.D. The TV) appearing/ referred to in this piece of fiction belong to me, and I don't make any money with this. This was written solely for entertainment purposes._

* * *

><p>Today was a good day for Ranma Saotome. Well, better than the usual Sunday mornings anyway. Two weeks ago she had learned Umisenken and Yamasenken to win over Ryu Kumon. Today she was going to see her mother again. The thought of this both depressed and exhilarated her, although the latter effect was considerably more powerful than the former. She had to wear the guise of Ranko Tendo in fear of the seppuku pact, and her mother would make her wear all that girly clothing. Yet seeing and talking with her mother - this was immeasurably better than not seeing Nodoka at all.<p>

The previous week Ranma had volunteered to help Nodoka to put together the scrolls Genma had left at the Saotome apartment ten years ago from the pieces she had cut them into. It wasn't particularly exciting, but it was a reason for her to be with her mother. A minor cloud in Ranma's sky was that Nodoka had insisted that Ranma wore a skirt when she came to her house to help. This meant that she shouldn't walk on fences and roof hopping was a bit risque habit as well. At least Nodoka hadn't said the skirt had to be particularly feminine or decorative.

But that didn't prohibit her from running. Besides, the less time she spent travelling meant more time that could be spent with her mother.

A few minutes later Ranma had already entered the Saotome apartment. After exchanging their greetings, they began the day with a cooking lesson on preparing the lunch for the two of them.

* * *

><p>"I must say, Ranko, that vegetables are usually sliced and diced on board and not in air," Nodoka commented with a disapproving frown after Ranma had thrown the leeks in the air, sliced them while still in the air with a knife and had them land in a bowl.<p>

"But for a fighter everything should be made practice, and this is good practice," Ranma insisted.

"It is not proper for ladies to fight. After I have teach you the proper etiquette, you'll be turning down suitors both left and right," Nodoka said, finishing with a long, heartfelt sigh. Small sparklies could almost be seen in her eyes as she said this, but not quite.

Ranma briefly wondered if Nodoka had seen Genma practice enough to know his style well enough to recognize Ranko as Genma's student. Even in this sense, it made sense for her to not fight in Nodoka's presence.

Nodoka's rant was interrupted by the simple chime of the doorbell.

"Ranko, could you go see who is at the door?" she asked as she moved to the faucet to wash her hands. Ranma, who had been just cutting vegetables, just wiped her hands on her plain, white apron and left the kitchen for the door.

Behind the door there were two men. The taller was of apparently of Western descent with brown, combed hair and green eyes, whereas the shorter of the two was a Japanese with short black hair and frameless glasses. Ranma could instinctual tell both of them were fit, but although they were above the average; falling far short from the average Neriman martial artist. Both were dressed in a suit, and the taller carried a small suitcase.

"Good day, miss. Is your mother here?" the shorter asked with a smile. Ranma's cheerful expression faltered a bit at that reminder.

"Uhm... she ain't my mother..." she quietly said before turning her head back away from the door and raising her voice: "Auntie, someone asking fer ya?"

"Ranko, mind your speech dear! Who is it?" Nodoka's voice carried from the kitchen. Ranko turned to face the men again, expecting an answer from them. "You heard her."

The taller man opened the briefcase and pulled out a photocopy of a piece of paper. The paper was cut and folded to be an envelope, and written there, at the sender's address, was Nodoka's name and address. "This is your... auntie's name and address, am I right?" the taller one asked with an accent.

Ranma was now worried. What she could see in the photocopy was an envelope, very much like the ones Nodoka had cut from Genma's scrolls. "Pops... if you got mother in trouble..." she thought. As far as Ranma was concerned, Nodoka should not have to deal with Genma's problems.

While Ranma was thinking of different ways to smite the panda, Nodoka walked to the door. "How can we be of assistance?"

"Pleased to meet you, Mrs Saotome. I'm Yosuke Fujita and this", the short man said waving towards his partner, "is Shane Dowell." Both men bowed.

"Ma'am, do you recognize the piece of paper in this picture?" the short man asked, showing Nodoka the picture.

"That could be a part of the scrolls my manly husband left with me years ago. But what about it?" she replied with slight wonder in her tone.

"We have reason to believe this scroll was stolen from our client. Now, our client does not want any legal hassle, but we insist on the proper returning of the item in question."

Nodoka's eyes gained a hard glint at the implied slander. "You dare suggest I possess items gained by dishonourable means?"

"Missus, there's no need for -"

"You insult the honor of our clan by claiming one of us a thief!" Nodoka exclaimed and reached for the Saotome honor blade. Meanwhile, Ranma had a rare flash of insight. "Pops didn't leave just his martial arts scrolls here. Curse you, Pops, for getting Mother involved in this!. she thought, keeping her thoughts to herself. Yet on the other hand, she was intrigued to see Nodoka stand up for clan honor also when it didn't come to the seppuku pledge with just as much passion.

"You had better leave here. Now,. Nodoka stated, her outrage over the slight on her husband.s honor rising to surface.

Shane looked down at Yosuke and shook his head slowly. Then his eyes hardened. The two men looked at each other and after a brief hesitation gave a curt nod to each other. But then they saw Ranko, glowing with a red and blue battle aura like a warning beacon. They instantly understood that even though Nodoka barely knew how to handle the sword, this "Ranko" could beat the two of them in seconds. In conclusion, they did the smart thing.

"We are sorry, madam. Please, excuse us," they said, before turning and walking away at a brisk pace that some would undoubtedly call running.

* * *

><p>Inwardly, Ranma was seething. First and foremost she was angry at her father for letting his misdeeds catch on her mother. Second, she was angry at the two men who just thought they could invade her mother's house and forcefully take something Genma had stolen. At least they had realized they were ill-prepared to take on her. Third, ...<p>

"A young girl like you shouldn't have the need to fight. No, this is absolutely unsuitable. The next time I see your uncle Soun, I shall bring up the point of introducing you to strong, manly men like my son and ..." Nodoka was still continuing her rant, but Ranma had for the most part tuned her voice out, more focused on how she had been quite ready to pull out her blade yet admonished her for preparing for a fight. Outwardly she had a wide, grateful, fake smile.

When Nodoka had finally finished, Ranma had only one question. "What about the lunch?"

* * *

><p>In the Japanese office of the British Library a phone rang on the desk of the chief of operations. Kyu Tsukasa, the said chief, lifted his feet off the desk, put down his cup of coffee and reached for the telephone. He hadn't expected the pair he had sent for the book retrieval operation to contact him so quickly, which to him meant either something had gone wrong or everything had gone absolutely right. Of course, the latter scenario was just much too good to really happen - as it happened to be also this time.<p>

"So the scroll is still in their possession?"

Kyu raised his eyebrow, then leaned forward on his desk to take out a blank sheet of paper and pick up a fountain pen in his other hand. To him, the sudden complication to the botched operation sounded disturbing.

"You make her sound like she's one of the Great Men."

As the caller continued, he wrote notes down on the paper.

"A visible 'battle aura?'" Kyu Tsukasa couldn't keep a small amount of disbelief out of his question. Then his expression took a more serious look. "They sounded like they truly believed their situation analysis, but no kid should be a fighter good enough to take on any of our operatives, let alone two simultaneously... no normal kid in any case." Blinking back from his thoughts, he spoke to the phone.

"I expect a complete report by tomorrow at 8am. Now, get to it."

He hung down the phone, sighed and tapped his desk a few times with her fingers.

"Who is this Ranko girl... and is she somehow related to the Great Men incident?" Kyu contemplated. The unit he had sent to retrieve the scroll was most obviously unqualified to deal with this external variable. He'd have to go to her supervisor to get someone from the Special Operations Squad to deal with this. The Library had done only a superficial background check on Nodoka Saotome. A lone woman whose husband ran out on her with their child ten years ago should've been no trouble even if it came to the use of force. "She should've been all too glad to help bury that husband of his in trouble," he thought with slight frustration. "To look incompetent or not... hmh, after this failure it's only a question whether to look incompetent or foolishly proud as well." The answer was an obvious one for any loyal servant of the British Library. He picked up the phone to call his boss.

"Joker? We have a potential Great Man sighting."

* * *

><p>The wooden wall panels in the office room carried the portraits of Sir Francis Drake and James Watt, to name but two. The chief of British Library Special Operations Squad, Joker, gave a sigh and leaned forward in his office chair. Yomiko was running late again, and he could guess why. He stirred a bit the cup of tea Wendy Earhart, his secretary, had brought a minute earlier and took a sip. Now with Mr Gentleman's death, he had little time or patience for dillydallying.<p>

"The Great Men Incident" had been resolved two months prior with the destruction of the rocket carrying the cloned composer Beethoven. Although the threat had been averted, the mission had not been a complete success. Nancy Makuhari, an operative in the Special Operations Squad, had been revealed to be one of the Great Men herself. In the end, she had redeemed herself by giving the Paper Master Yomiko Readman invaluable assistance, finally killing Ikkyo, the leader of the Great Men and her lover. Rather than face the consequences of her actions, Nancy had remained aboard the rocket that was still heading for the orbit. Most likely, she was now dead.

Nancy's 'evil twin', on the other hand, had survived the fight. After losing to Nancy, she was left to float in a pool of water face down. When the launch pad was secured and her unconscious body removed from the pool, she had already suffered brain damage and amnesia. She was never put to trial... due to reasons and possibilities not only of humane sort.

The rapid clack-clack of shoes approached from the hallway outside Joker's office. True to her form, Yomiko entered the room soon afterwards, her face somewhat red, hair disheveled and her trademark beige trenchcoat almost falling off of her shoulders, just like her glasses were sitting on her nose a little crooked.

"Ah, The Paper. Your promptness needs some work, don't you agree?"

"I'm sorry, Joker, but -" Yomiko tried to explain, before Joker cut her off.

"- you spent all of the morning at the sanitarium with Miss Makuhari?"

"... yes," Yomiko admitted, looking down at her hands clasped together in front of her.

"Now that we have put you back on the active roster, you should take your responsibility to the Library with greater diligence. Now, let us get down to business, shall we?" Joker admonished Yomiko before turning on the overhead projector. She sat down on a wooden chair in front of Joker's desk.

The slide showed a red-headed woman of maybe 35 years of age. "One month ago, we discovered that this woman, Nodoka Saotome, was apparently in possession of a piece of an old manuscript of Genji Monogatari." At this point, Yomiko had already forgotten the humiliation of being late and had begun to reminisce the first time she had had the pleasure to read the work of literary art in question. To her great dismay, she was promptly returned back to reality with a cough of disapproval from Joker, who changed the slide to that of a piece of an obviously old scroll.

"Based on this piece of paper, the Library has reason to believe the manuscript she has may include parts of the book previously considered lost or a version different from the known ones." Yomiko's eyes widened, and she yelped in utter bliss.

Joker briefly smiled at her reaction. "May no one claim Yomiko Readman doesn't love books," he thought to himself. Out loud, he continued the briefing.

"However, the acquisition planned by another section of the Library failed." Joker paused to wait for Yomiko to recover from her shock that she couldn't be reading the manuscript yet.

He changed the slide to show two pictures of two highschoolers, a boy and a girl. The boy, clad in a Chinese-style shirt, had long black hair, bound in a pigtail. The girl had the same hairstyle and the same kind of shirt, but her hair was bright red. For some reason, the girl appeared to have just been doused in water. "This here is Ranma Saotome, also known as Ranko Tendo, also known to some as 'pigtailed goddess', 'worthless weakling son', 'tree-borne kettle girl', 'foul sorcerer', 'vile harridan' and so on." He took again a sip of his tea before he continued.

"Our first attempt to retrieve the book was a failure due to hasty and mistaken conclusions. However, the agents involved reported an abnormal ability in this person: a so called battle aura. During our period of extended surveillance, he has professed several abilities not usually found in people." Joker stayed silent for a second for effect. "The surveillance reports suggest he is one of the Great Men."

Before Yomiko was lost again to her thoughts about Nancy, Joker brought Yomiko back to the reality with a loud cough. "Agent Paper. You are to recover the manuscript and ascertain whether Ranma Saotome is indeed one of the Great Men. You would do well to avoid the mistake the other squad did and read his file thoroughly before you assume the role of a substitute classical Japanese teacher at Furinkan High," he concluded, handing Yomiko a thick folder with the label "Saotome Ranma" written on it.

"Eeeeh?"

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN:<strong> Since seen this chapter mentioned maybe twice over the years in passing in spite of it never having been uploaded outside my home page (which hasn't held any fanfics in several years now), I suppose it might deserve being posted here. This was written probably in 2006 (probably before the first chapter of RanmaTronic) and it's only slightly edited for the upload here, so even though I have a rough overall plan of how the story would progress, don.t hold your breath waiting for updates. Then again, I did just dig out my ROD OAV and ROD The TV DVD cases for some reason... _


End file.
